I just joined because I had 2 lucid dreams this week and wanted to learn more

[KevNice]

I can't believe that I stumbled on such a large community and all these resources! its great to know how many other people are exploring these "realms". I would like to introduce myself by telling about two lucid dreams I had this week. I had the first one 2 days ago. After this I spent time investigating the various techniques and I had my 2nd one last night. Lucid dream #1 - DILD I frequently have very strange dreams, so I don't know whether my mind considered this one dream particularly strange, but in any case during the dream I asked myself the classic "Am I Dreaming?" question. Instantly I realized that I had been dreaming - I didnt really need to make many tests as the dreamscape was something out of Alice in Wonderland. Once I became conscious I looked down and noticed this strange animal creature, resembling a little chihuahua but more alien and colorful. It was standing next to a taller being, feathered and colorful, which I didn't get a good look at. Then I became too excited. Once I realized I was dreaming of course I immediately summoned two beautiful blonde women and began having sex with them. It did not last long - I didnt manage to have an orgasm or anything but after a short time I drifted back into normal dreaming unconsciousness; "lost my grip", as it were. The dream ended soon after. Lucid dream #2 - WILD? I think this one could be considered a WILD - it definitely was not a DILD. I don't even remember being in the dream and I was conscious from its beginning. I think I had awaken during the night, and went back to sleep with the intention to become lucid. I was sitting in front of a touch screen device, about the size of an iPad mini. I pressed my index and middle fingers of both hands into the screen, with the intention to pass through it, as if it was a portal or gateway to somewhere else. The screen resisted for a moment but then became viscous and my fingers passed through it, and the whole world opened up into another universe and my awareness rushed through it. Next I found myself floating in an expansive blackness devoid of substance. The only thing I could discern were some patterned white shapes in the distance, like stars or galaxies but spaced really far apart - they were in the shape of a keyhole, or a ball. At this point I tried Carlos Castanenda's "spinning" method to stabilize the dream. I focused on one of the white shapes and turned 360 degrees until I saw the same shape again. This helped stabilize the dream a little. I also looked down at my palms. They were backwards - instead of my palms it was the backs of my hands, and I had an extra finger on each and were super hairy like Bigfoot's hands. This also helped me to stabilize the dream. However I was now in an expansive blackness with nothing really to focus on. I wasn't sure what to do. Perhaps for this reason I was teleported (or maybe I teleported myself?) to another world. The environment here was something like a rural colony - rolling green hills, wooden buildings and people dressed in colonial/pilgrim wear. I was still lucid at the beginning of this part, but after a few moments I lost myself into the dream environment. I went on to have a pretty interesting dream - I was a member of a council of protectors, like King Arthurs Knights of the Round Table, assigned with a mystic responsibility to defend the realm. I ended up being the Hero of a strange medieval quest and story and the Queen herself visited us. I didnt have any control over the dream though. Do you guys have any tips for how to maintain control of lucidity? I had the idea that next time, I would try to breathe slowly like I would in meditation, and spend a few moments focusing on just one object. Perhaps that would stop me from becoming excited/spinning off to another world and losing consciousness. Kev

[gab]

to DreamViews, Kev! How exciting to welcome another lucid dreamer to our community! Those were very nice lucids you had, congrats on getting them. The second one could have been a DILD or a WILD. Depending on if you fell asleep (lost awareness) before you realized you are dreaming, or went straight into a dream from being awake, without any loss of awareness. It looks like you had very nice awareness and control. Sometimes dreams end when we get to the end of that REM. We normally wake up at that time, even if only briefly. This probably happens often, especially with DILDs, when we get lucid towards the end of the REM when our mind is already getting ready to wake up and thus our awareness is getting raised. There is couple of things you can do to stay in a lucid longer. 1. Pay attention in a LD and notice when it's starting to fade or you get other clues that its about to end. Then you can make a decision not to wake up, but wait in the void (between dreams) until next REM starts and new dream is available for you to enter. 2. Learn to DEILD. Same as above, when you'r dream or lucid dream ends, train yourself not to wake up. Or even if you do wake up, train yourself not to move or open your eyes. But instead, think about the dream you just woke up from and enter it again. Even if you don't enter the same dream, you will enter another one, only this time lucidly. 3. Practicing daytime awareness. This will help with having better awareness in a lucid dream which gives you better opportunities to notice when dream is about to end, better control, vision, decision making, memory... 4. Sometimes I manage to keep my awareness and stay in a LD longer, if I keep repeating my mantra "I am dreaming" while in a LD. 5. Yes, sometimes you can ground yourself in a dream by looking at some object. I sometimes look at my hands. Others recommend to keep moving, stomping your feet, smelling the air, singing or talking, touching the ground, eat a flower, haha, pretty much anything to get yourself immersed in a dream, to become a part of it rather than just an observer. There are all kinds of daytime awareness tutorials. For me awareness means, to be aware of myself and how I effect my environment. Going through my day with "opened eyes". Noticing people and their faces, color of their clothes, try to recall their names, paying attention what I am wearing, what cars are passing me by, is it cloudy or sunny, cold or warm... Practically not be going through my day like on a auto-pilot, without thinking what I am doing, where I am, where I am going, why I am there and how did I get there. This is a great WILD tutorial here WILD DEILD http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...cid-dream.html DILD http://www.dreamviews.com/dreamviews...ods-dilds.html RCs http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...hecks-rcs.html Please look around the forum, and ask if we can help with anything. Happy dreams

[KevNice]

Thanks gab, for the tips and the warm welcome